LAHORE: A female athlete from Azad Kashmir, who reportedly came to Lahore to take part in the 43rd National Athletics Championship, which concluded at the Punjab Stadium here on Thursday, has gone missing, well informed sources told on the condition of anonymity.

PESHAWAR (APP): Taking to the visiting Azad Jammu & Kashmir Minister for Information, Environment and Overseas Kashmiris, Mehmood Riaz, and Abdul Majid Khan on Wednesday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussein to Mian Iftikhar said that provincial autonomy does not mean succession from Pakistan as it is our identity, saying that strong provinces would make Pakistan strong. He said that they want a strong Kashmir that will strengthen Pakistan.

MUZAFFARABAD: The construction on the largest road project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was halted as the technical staff launched a protest.Some 55 members of the Earthquake Emergency Assistance Programme (EEAP), which is working on the 76-kilometre-long Muzaffarabad-Athmuqam Road, have gone

GULPUR: A powerful explosion in an oil depot has killed one man and left five others injured in Gul Pur area located in the outskirt of Kotli locality of Azad Kashmir late on Thursday night.

According to reports, the blast occurred in Gul Pur area of Kotli in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Explosion followed the fierce blaze that engulfed as many as six men, burning one to death and leaving five others critically wounded.

MIRPUR: Candidates for the forthcoming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), while waiting for the final schedule, have begun electioneering.Various political parties have started consultations to form electoral alliances with field candidates independently or otherwise in the elections, which are like to be held in the next three months.

April 17 (APP): Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Sunday that the next elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) would be held in a fair and free manner. Addressing a press conference here, she said that all political parties were united for the Kashmir cause and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had always raised voice for Kashmiris’ rights, without giving any consideration to political interests.

Heavy rain on Sunday triggered landslides across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Balistan (G-B). Muzaffarabad, the capital of AJK, received 31 millimetres (mm) of rain, while Rawalakot received 48 mm.

Temperatures in Gilgit plummeted down to zero degrees Celsius. The rains also caused landslides in various areas of G-B and AJK, disrupting road links.

ISLAMABAD, April 14 -- The government has given the contract for 1,100 MW Kohala Hydropower Project to a Chinese firm, setting aside the Pakistan Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and without holding International Competitive Bidding (ICB), well-placed official sources told media.

The decision to award the contract to the Chinese company came soon after the recent visit of Cao Guanging, the chairman of the state-owned China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC),

MUZAFFARABAD: The intra-Kashmir bus service, which completes six years this year, has served to reunite 15,976 Kashmiris divided by the Line of Control (LoC).

Officials from Indian Kashmir and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) exchanged greetings and sweets at the LoC bridge in Chakothi to mark the sixth anniversary of the bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar that began on April 7, 2005, as a confidence-building measure between sparring India and Pakistan. Initially started as a fortnightly service, in August 2008, buses began travelling on a weekly basis. Following the service’s success, another bus service was launched on June 6, 2006, between Rawalakot in Pakistan and Poonch in India.

An eye hospital, the first of its kind has become operational in Azad Kashmir. The state-of-the-art hospital, established by Al-Shifa Eye Trust in Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir, will provide latest treatment facilities to the people of AJK. It is the fourth eye-care facility opened by the trust in Pakistan, along with an under construction hospital in Quetta. “The hospital started functioning on Tuesday and it will endow the masses with access to modern eye treatment,” said Col (retd) Mushtaq Ahmed, Executive Director of the hospital.

NEW DELHI: Amid reports of Chinese presence in Azad Kashmir, India Wednesday said it closely and regularly monitors all developments along its borders even as the Ministry of External Affairs has sought a report from the Defence Ministry on the issue.

Pakistan Muthida Kisan Mahaz (PMKM) has started a movement to condemn Indian water aggression against Pakistan and to foil the Indian plan of depriving Pakistan from its share of water in the rivers irrigating both the countries by building dams on Chenab, Jehlum and Sindh.The protest movement has been launched from Mirpur (AJK) where PMKM chief Muhammad Ayub Khan Mayo will apprise the media about impact of construction of Kishan Ganga Dam on Pakistan’s agriculture, Mangla Dam and cities of AJK.

Jammu, Indian Occupied Kashmir : In a bid to boost the people-to-people contact between two sides of Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir government is examining proposals for re-opening more pre-Partition routes across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides this state between India and Pakistan.

Family members of the former militant commander Muhammad Ahsan Dar on Wednesday rejected the police claim that he was involved in the murder of Nazir Ahmad Lone of Kreeri Baramulla in north Kashmir. Dar’s elder son Zubair Ashan Dar termed the accusations leveled against Dar as “unfounded and uncalled for.”

If the hydropower project on River Jhelum is constructed, it will generate 1,000 MW of electricity. PHOTO: FILE

MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan and China are trapped in a deadlock over the construction of the 1,100 megawatts (MW) Kohala Hydropower Project on the Jhelum River in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) due to Wapda’s intransigence.The contract was awarded to a Chinese construction company, China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE).